Our collection of the best photojournalism of 2012 concludes with a look at the months of September, October, November, and December. While hurricane Sandy devastated the American northeast coast, numerous powerful typhoons wreaked havoc on several Asian nations. The battle for Syria further devolved into a bloody abyss as the conflict dragged on well into its second year. Protests against austerity measures roiled Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and other European countries, China picked a new leader during their once-a-decade power transition, and a new burst of violence scarred relations between Israelis and Palestinians. Through it all, the ordinary lives of people in our multifaceted cultures shined bright. [Editor's note: The Big Picture will not publish during the week beginning December 23. We will return on December 31.]-- Lane Turner (43 photos total)

A woman, dressed in a Halloween costume, takes a rope jump from an old water pipe bridge 144 feet high in the Siberian Taiga area outside Krasnoyarsk, Russia on October 28, 2012. (Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

A child jumps on the waste products used to make poultry feed as she plays in a tannery at Hazaribagh in Dhaka, Bangladesh on October 9, 2012. Luxury leather goods sold across the world are produced in a slum area of Bangladesh's capital where workers, including children, are exposed to hazardous chemicals and often injured in horrific accidents. None of the tanneries packed into the Hazaribagh neighborhood treat their waste water, which contains animal flesh, sulphuric acid, chromium and lead, leaving it to spew into open gutters and eventually the city's main river. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters) #

A multiple exposure photograph shows Britain's Andy Murray as he serves to Serbia's Novak Djokovic during their men's singles tennis match at the ATP World Tour Finals in the O2 Arena in London on November 7, 2012. (Dylan Martinez/Reuters) #

A woman escapes from a cloud of tear gas thrown by the police during the second day of skirmishes in the Eastleigh neighborhood of Nairobi on November 19, 2012. Police dispersed Kenyans raging against ethnic Somalis in the Somali-dominated neighborhood in protest against a bomb attack in the district. (Noor Khamis/Reuters) #

A Red Deer stag roars in the early morning light in Richmond Park on October 10, 2012 in London. Autumn sees the start of the 'rutting' season where the large stags can be heard roaring and barking in an attempt to attract females and can also be seen clashing with rival males. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) #

Indian herders and their camels gather at the annual Pushkar Fair in Pushkar, India on November 22, 2012. The annual camel and livestock fair attracts thousands of livestock dealers who bring thousands of camels, horses, and cattle. (Kevin Frayer/Associated Press) #

Medical workers help a patient into an ambulance during an evacuation of New York University's Tisch Hospital on October 29, 2012, in New York. The hospital was moving out more than 200 patients after its backup generator failed after superstorm Sandy. (John Minchillo/Associated Press) #

Tahera Begum, who survived a devastating fire in a garment factory, lies inside her room in Savar on November 30, 2012. Begum, an operator at Tazreen Fashions garment factory, escaped the fire which killed more than 100 workers on November 24. According to Begum's husband, she became mentally ill and lost her memory after escaping the fire. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters) #

Indonesian mental patient Ujang takes a bath at a small mental rehabilitation center run by the Jamrud Biru foundation in Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia on October 10, 2012, the World Health Organization World Mental Health Day. (Mast Irham/EPA) #

A scientist delegate yawns on stage during the closing session of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China inside the Great Hall of the People on November 14, 2012 in Beijing. (Feng Li/Getty Images) #

A worker breaks bedrock by sledge hammer as a rotary dredge rips the coal face of the Borodinsky opencast colliery near the Siberian town of Borodino on November 15, 2012. The Borodinsky colliery is the biggest opencast coal mine in Russia, built from 1945 to 1949 by gulag prisoners and now produces about 20 million tons of coal annually. (Ilya Naymushin/Reuters) #

Internally displaced children walk through flood waters next to makeshift shelters at a camp in southern Mogadishu on December 1, 2012. Heavy rains in Mogadishu caused floods which have affected the entire capital but hit internally displaced persons and their camps hardest. (Abdurashid Abdulle Abikar/AFP/Getty Images) #

Palestinian schoolchildren walk in debris by a damaged school in Gaza City on November 24, 2012. A truce came after eight days of cross-border fighting, the bloodiest between Israel and Hamas in four years. The school was damaged when Israeli forces struck on a nearby building. (Bernat Armangue/Associated Press) #

Shackled inmates accused of murders sit in their cell in Rumbek Central Prison in Rumbek, South Sudan on October 24, 2012. Built in 1948 by the British colonial government, Rumbek Central Prison houses some 600 prisoners who live in overcrowded cells with virtually no access to the basic health care, sanitation, or adequate food and nutrition. Arbitrary detention is rife in South Sudan, says a 2012 report by Human Rights Watch, which also states that access to legal aid is just one of several human rights laws being broken at the prisons in South Sudan, which 'clearly do not comply with international or domestic law and standards on prisoners' welfare'. (Dai Kurokawa/EPA) #

Palestinian gunmen drag the body of a man suspected of working for Israel in Gaza City on November 20, 2012. Palestinian gunmen shot dead six alleged collaborators in the Gaza Strip who "were caught red-handed", according to a security source quoted by the Hamas Aqsa radio. (Yasser Gdeeh/Reuters) #

A riot police officer is dragged by protesters after being knocked from his horse with rocks thrown by workers of 'La Parada' wholesale market in Lima on October 25, 2012 during clashes between the wholesale market workers and police officers. (Alessandro Currarino/Diario El Comercio/Reuters) #

A local scout reacts as he inspects the body of a Congolese government soldier who was killed in fighting with M23 rebels near Sake, Democratic Republic of Congo on November 23, 2012. Tens of thousands of residents fled Sake and surrounding areas after heavy fighting. (Dai Kurakawa/EPA) #

A Palestinian man carries the dead body of a child of the al-Dallu family out from the rubble after an Israeli missile struck a family home, killing at least seven members of the same family in Gaza City on November 18, 2012. (Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images)#

A teddy is measured at the Teddy Bear Hospital in the AMC Hospital in Amsterdam on November 6, 2012. The Teddy Bear Hospital aims to make children comfortable with hospitals and doctors. (Lex Van Lieshout/EPA)#

A Greenpeace activist, dressed as a polar bear, sits inside a police car after being detained outside Gazprom's headquarters in Moscow on September 5, 2012. Russian and international environmentalists are protesting against Gazprom's plans to pioneer oil drilling in the Arctic. (Misha Japaridze/Associated Press) #

A North Korean traffic coordinator stands on a roadside near portraits of the late leaders Kim Il Sung (left) and Kim Jong Il during a foggy morning on Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on December 17, 2012, the first death anniversary of the former leader Kim Jong Il. (Ng Han Guan/Associated Press)#